A huge exhalation of collective disappointment rolled down from the towering stands of Sha Tin racecourse and drifted out onto the South China Sea. The single word "Overruled" had appeared on the massive screen opposite, and Viva Pataca, the local hero so rabidly supported by the 51,000-strong crowd, had definitely been beaten by Frankie Dettori on Ramonti in the Hong Kong Cup, the richest race on a hugely valuable card here yesterday.

Less than 20 minutes earlier, Mick Kinane and Viva Pataca had narrowly failed to peg back the Godolphin five-year-old, sent on by a frenetic Dettori early in the straight, for the £750,000 first prize.

But then came the ding-dong chime indicating a stewards' enquiry and objection. Dettori and Kinane disappeared into the stewards' room.

Minute after minute ticked by, and the nearest to quiet you'll ever experience at a Hong Kong racetrack descended - only to be shattered by that communal groan.

Ramonti was winning a Group One race for the fourth time this year, following victories chiselled out in the St James's Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. No surprise, then, that Dettori named him "one of the bravest horses I've ever ridden".

The Hong Kong Cup was his first win over 10 furlongs, and he now seems the natural Godolphin flag-bearer for the Dubai World Cup in March.

Godolphin, formally representing the United Arab Emirates rather than its summer home in Britain, missed out on a sensational double by the width of a noodle when Creachadoir was pipped by Good Ba Ba, trained in Hong Kong by Andreas Schutz, after a thrombotic finish to the Mile.

But the Dubai operation's big rival Coolmore had a dire afternoon, with Excellent Art never firing in the Mile, and King George and Arc hero Dylan Thomas putting in such a flat effort when seventh in the Vase that jockey Johnny Murtagh summed up the performance with a distinctly unpoetic "No gas!"

The Vase went to Champion Stakes third Doctor Dino, ridden by Olivier Peslier and trained at Chantilly by English-born Richard Gibson, who declared: "Running in events like this are the reason one gets up in the morning." Dettori and Red Rocks finished ninth.

Aidan O'Brien reported that Dylan Thomas had been "way overweight" after his stay in quarantine during his abortive trip to the Japan Cup - "as big as a bull" - and it had simply been impossible to prepare him properly for the race.

Dylan Thomas now retires to stud, with his trainer calling him "the best horse we've ever had".

In the Hong Kong Sprint, Sacred Kingdom powered home under Gerald Mossé to proclaim himself the natural successor to the now-retired Silent Witness, the most popular horse in Hong Kong racing history. Britain's challengers, Desert Lord and Benbaun, came ninth and last, respectively.

So Hong Kong versus the Rest of the World ended in an honourable score-draw, but that was little comfort to the hordes of Viva Pataca supporters who made their idol one of the shortest-priced favourites in the decade of this bonanza of international racing.

Late last night, the smog which for days had been draped like a blanket over Hong Kong, was still reeking with the smell of burnt fingers.